Google Doodle celebrates Muppets creator Jim Henson’s birthday

As you may have noticed already if you’ve pointed your browser over to Google today, there’s a new Google Doodle up featuring six Muppet-inspired creatures of varying degrees of cuteness in honor of the late Jim Henson’s 75th birthday.

The HTML5-powered Google Doodle isn’t just for show, though – you can interact with each of the Muppet-like creatures, and there’s even quite a few easter eggs to be found for good measure, one of which may or may not involve Muppet cannibalism.

The doodle was a collaboration between Google and the Jim Henson Company, which is now headed up by Henson’s son, Brian Henson. In a blog post posted on Google’s blog, Henson talked about his father.

“He also loved games—card games, board games, all kinds of games,” Henson wrote in a post over on Google’s blog. “He was one of those rare parents who was always ready to play again. He loved dogs, particularly goofy ones. And he lived for those moments when everyone laughed so hard they couldn’t talk. I often walked onto the Muppet set to find everyone just laughing hysterically.

“He loved gadgets and technology. Following his lead, The Jim Henson Company continues to develop cutting-edge technology for animatronics and digital animation, like this cool Google doodle celebrating Jim’s 75th birthday. But I think even he would have found it hilarious the way today some people feel that when they’ve got their smartphone, they no longer need their brain.”

You can check out a behind-the-scenes video from The Jim Henson Company on the Doodle below.